Brazil bids to become third global IT market by 2022

SAO PAUL - Agence France-Presse

An employer works at the Brazil’s Minerao Stadium in Belo Horizonte. Brazil’s expectations are raised for the 2014 World Cup. AFP photo

Brazil hopes to capitalize on the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics to advance its goal of becoming the world’s third largest information technology and communications (ITC) market, a top industry official says.

“We are today the fifth largest ITC market in the world, (worth) $210 billion dollars,” Antonio Gil, president of the Brazilian Association of Information Technology and Communication Companies (Brasscom), told AFP in an interview Monday.

Brasscom, which groups top domestic and foreign ITC companies operating in Brazil such as IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Ericcson and Lenovo, is drawing up a study with global consulting firm McKinsey on how to help Brazil vault into third place behind China and the United States by 2022. 2022 will mark the bicentennial of Brazil’s independence from Portugal and the joint study aims to develop a strategic plan to make ITC “the engine of Brazil’s development” and identify what needs to be done to turn the world’s sixth largest economy into “one of the top three ITC” markets, Gil said.

Global players
Results of the study, titled Brazil 2022, are expected to be released at a Brasscom Global IT forum here in October. Gil, a former IBM senior executive, said Brazil’s ITC strengths included sophisticated financial services, electronic voting and tax declaration systems as well as widespread use of ITC by the energy, agriculture and manufacturing centers.

“We are now focusing on innovation and new investment in small and medium sized companies as well as on using IT in sectors like health, education and transparency in government,” he added.

The 74-year-old Brasscom chief sees the World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olymics as a boon for Brazil and for the ITC industry, with the government pouring billions of dollars in a wide range of infrastructure projects.

“We hope that the infrastructure being developed can be used subsequently for the benefit of all,” he said. “We are looking at education, health, development, broadband communications.” Brasscom, which works closely with the science and technology ministry and other government agencies, in 2010 coordinated a study mapping IT opportunities during the two premier sporting events.